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How Viruses Invade Cells
Fredric S. Cohen1
1Department of Molecular Biophysics and Physiology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
Every so often news about a viral outbreak goes viral and
catches widespread public attention in the media. Human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), West Nile virus, avian influ-
enza (bird flu), Ebola, Middle East respiratory virus, and
Zika virus have each become, in a flurry of headlines and
broadcasts and interviews, the focus of the media’s spot-
light. And then, like other crises, they fade from view leav-
ing the public with a new health concern to worry about but
little knowledge of the actual factors involved in the prob-
lem. Behind the scenes, however, scientists are continually
at work trying to understand and defend against these insid-
ious infectious agents.
Viruses are perfect parasites. It has been known for de-
cades that once a virus gets inside a cell, it hijacks the
cellular processes to produce virally encoded protein that
will replicate the virus’s genetic material. Viral mechanisms
are capable of translocating proteins and genetic material
from the cell and assembling them into new virus particles.
Contemporary research has revealed specific mechanisms
viruses use to get inside cells and infect them.
An individual viral particle, called a virion, is a far
simpler structure than a bacterium. It has often been ques-
tioned whether a virus is alive. It is certainly not living in
the everyday sense of the word. Virions consist of genetic
material—DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein coating.
Many viruses, called enveloped viruses, have an additional
outer membrane that encloses the protein coat. This mem-
brane envelope is material co-opted from the cell’s own
membrane. As the new virion buds out from an infected
host cell, it is wrapped by the cell’s bilayer membrane and
carries with it any protein that happens to be embedded in
the membrane at the budding site. Enveloped viruses are
then free to begin a new cycle of infection by fusing their
cell-derived envelope with the cellular membrane of an
uninfected cell.
Some types of enveloped virus fuse directly to the cell’s
outer (plasma) membrane, whereas others are engulfed
whole by endocytosis or similar processes and then fuse
their envelope with the membrane of the engulfing internal
organelle (e.g., an endosome) to gain access to the interior
of the cell. In either case, the genetic material of the virus
has invaded the cell through the barrier of its membrane,
and infection will inevitably follow . Infection can
be prevented if fusion of the viral envelope with the cell
or endosomal membrane can be blocked. Similarly, if a vac-
cine can be directed against the viral fusion protein, infec-
tion can be prevented. Vaccines against the influenza
virus, for example, target the fusion proteins of the virus.
Viral genetic material is relatively small, encoding only a
few proteins. All enveloped viruses contain fusion proteins,
which are the molecules responsible for fusing the envelope
to a cellular membrane. These proteins are derived from the
virion’s genetic sequence. The precise genetic material, the
amino acid sequence, and details in structure of a fusion pro-
tein are unique for each type of virus. Consequently, broad-
spectrum antiviral drugs do not exist, and specific vaccines
and drugs typically need to be developed for each virus type.
The viral surface of an individual virion contains multiple
copies of its fusion protein. Influenza virus, for example,
typically contains 500–1000 copies, whereas HIV contains
only about a dozen copies ). A virion’s machinery is
so efficient that each cell infected by even a single virion
can produce about a million new virions. Because enveloped
viruses use similar mechanisms for delivery of genetic ma-
terial into cells, there may be ways to prevent infection
before viral entry that would be effective for large numbers
of different viruses.
The membrane that is the skin of a cell and an enveloped
virion, and is the gateway of viral entry, consists of lipids
and proteins. Lipids are roughly linear molecules of fat
that are attached at one end to a water-soluble headgroup.
Lipids provide the cohesion that keeps biological mem-
branes intact. They spontaneously arrange themselves into
a lipid bilayer because oily fat does not mix with water.
The headgroups of one monolayer face an external aqueous
solution, whereas the headgroups of the other monolayer
face the interior of the cell. Integral membrane proteins,
such as viral fusion proteins, are inserted into the bilayer
and project out from the lipid surface into the external solu-
tion-like icebergs. Membranes are generally 50% lipids and
50% proteins by weight, but proteins are much heavier than
lipids, and so there are about a hundred times more lipids
than proteins in a membrane. Membranes are able to fuse
to each other because they are fluid ), and the lipids pro-
vide fluidity to the membrane.
Viruses initially stick to cell membranes through interac-
tions unrelated to fusion proteins. The virus surfs along the
fluid surface of the cell and eventually the viral fusion pro-
teins bind to receptor molecules on the cell membrane ). If
only binding occurred, the two membranes would remain
distinct. Fusion does not happen spontaneously because
Submitted August 28, 2015, and accepted for publication October 28, 2015.
*Correspondence:
2016 by the Biophysical Society
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